Russian lawmaker Valery Seleznev, father of the detained Russian citizen

MOSCOW, July 14. /ITAR-TASS/. A Russian consul met with Roman Seleznyov, a Russian national who was detained by the US security services and is now being kept in custody on the US island of Guam, Seleznyov’s father, Russian lawmaker Valery Seleznyov, told ITAR-TASS on Monday.

Seleznyov Sr. said he had no details of the conditions his son was being kept in.

“The consul will give information only through his diplomatic channels. There is no Russian diplomatic mission on Guam, so he will have to go back to San Francisco, at least,” Seleznyov Sr. said, adding that his son’s American lawyers were in contact with his son.

Roman Seleznyov was detained on the Maldives at the US request and transferred to Guam under the US jurisdiction. The US authorities suspect him of stealing and then selling information on the credit cards of US consumers in a period from October 2009 to February 2011. In March 2011, Seleznyov was charged on 29 points in absentia in the State of Washington. He may face decades in jail and a fine worth millions of dollars if his guilt is proven.

Besides, the authorities in the State of Nevada have filed a criminal lawsuit against Seleznyov on suspicion of links to a criminal group that dealt with extortion.

Valуry Seleznyov says psychological pressure is being exerted on his son at the Guam prison. Moreover, conditions at the prison are awful although his son needs constant medical care.

Nonetheless, Seleznyov Sr. is confident his son would not plead guilty.

“Second hearings on the case have been appointed on July 22. They are about Roman’s identification, his confessing he is the man involved in the criminal case on hacker activities - in other words, his incriminating himself,” Valery Seleznyov told ITAR-TASS. “But I am confident he won’t do that. Despite the awful incarceration conditions, Roman is not a person to confess of what he never did. He is a steadfast and unflinching man”.